Personal Life Of Candidate Ignites Dispute

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

Published: August 26, 2002

Correction Appended

Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, acknowledged yesterday that he had fathered two children by two women while still legally married to his first wife.

The revelation quickly turned into an exchange of accusations between the campaigns of the two Democratic candidates for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo and H. Carl McCall, over who had leaked the story to the news media.

Aides to Mr. Mehiel and Mr. McCall, who are closely allied, said it was leaked by the Cuomo campaign. Aides to Mr. Cuomo strenuously denied that, saying that the McCall camp was trying to turn the story into an unwarranted attack on Mr. Cuomo.

Mr. Mehiel separated from his first wife, Edith, in 1992, his aides said. A girl fathered by Mr. Mehiel was born to another woman later that year, and Mr. Mehiel has supported his daughter financially and been involved in her upbringing ever since, they said. They said the mother did not want her name disclosed to the news media and did not want to be interviewed.

Mr. Mehiel fathered another girl in 1996 by another woman, whom he later married, and he has lived with that daughter and her mother for most, if not all, of the child's life, the aides said. They said that Dennis and Edith Mehiel divorced in 1999 after 37 years of marriage, and he married his present wife, Karen, in 2001.

Mr. Mehiel, 60, declined to be interviewed by The New York Times yesterday. But in an interview with The Associated Press, he noted that his campaign literature had boasted of his seven children, a total that includes the two born outside marriage.

''I've never tried to conceal anything,'' he said. ''I love all my children very much.'' Of the two youngest, he said, ''I share the child-rearing responsibilities.''

Aides to Mr. Mehiel and Mr. McCall, who have merged their two campaigns, said that when they learned that a newspaper, which they would not identify, planned to publish an article on the subject in today's issue, they provided the information to The Associated Press, which is used by virtually all the state's newspapers and broadcast outlets, as a sort of pre-emptive strike. They said the initial leak to the newspaper that already had the story was from the Cuomo campaign.

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, Peter Ragone, said: ''This is an outrageous diversion attempt. We're not even running against Dennis Mehiel. We have nothing to do with his personal issues. We don't talk about Carl McCall's personal life and family, and we would not do it with anyone else.''

He said Mr. Cuomo, the former federal housing secretary, did not consider the matter of a candidate's fathering children outside of marriage a legitimate campaign topic.

Steven Greenberg, a spokesman for Mr. McCall, the state comptroller, said he knew of Mr. Mehiel's family situation before they became allied in this campaign.

''The comptroller knows that Dennis Mehiel is the best candidate, and Dennis Mehiel has the comptroller's complete support,'' Mr. Greenberg said. ''The comptroller regrets these kinds of negative attacks.''

In the oddest twist in this turn of events, the campaign of Charlie King, who is Mr. Mehiel's Democratic primary opponent and Mr. Cuomo's ally, had warned the Mehiel campaign that a negative personal article about Mr. Mehiel was on its way -- a warning confirmed by both sides, though they disagreed on its meaning.

''Aug. 14, I get a call from Jon Kott, Charlie King's spokesman, saying Charlie wanted to meet with me right away, at a location between our two headquarters, alone, that he had something he desperately needed to tell me,'' Mr. Mehiel's campaign manager, Maureen Kane, said in a telephone interview last night. ''I asked Jon if he had any idea what it was about, and Jon said, yes, he wanted to tell me that a nasty story about Dennis's personal life was coming out and Charlie wanted to warn me and tell me he had nothing to do with it, but that the Cuomo people were behind it.''

Mr. Kott confirmed that account except for the most explosive part, about the Cuomo campaign's planting the article. ''That part is absolutely not correct,'' he said. ''Charlie just wanted to make sure she knew that this was not coming from us.''

Ms. Kane said that no more than half an hour before she spoke with Mr. Kott, a reporter had called the McCall-Mehiel campaign, asking about the circumstances under which Mr. Mehiel's children were born. She said she never got back to Mr. King about the matter.

Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are running separately in the primary election on Sept. 10, but Mr. McCall and Mr. Mehiel have woven their campaigns tightly together, putting aides on both their payrolls, making joint television ads and often appearing together. Whoever wins the primary for governor and lieutenant governor will then run together as a ticket in November, even if they are not each other's preferred running mates.

Mr. McCall's strategists want Mr. Mehiel to win his primary, in part because he will invest in the campaign some of the personal fortune he has compiled in the cardboard and paper products business. Aides to Mr. McCall, who is black, also say they think that Mr. Mehiel, a white businessman, would make for better ticket balance than Mr. King, a black lawyer who has spent much of his career in government service.

The exchanges over Mr. Mehiel's personal life overshadowed a day of campaigning in which Mr. Cuomo sought to chip away at Mr. Mehiel's support among black voters. Mr. Cuomo visited a few black churches and stood by as the scholar Cornel West, who is black, called Mr. McCall ''timid and hesitant'' on issues important to blacks.

Dr. West, a Princeton University professor and best-selling author on black America, continued a pattern in which Mr. Cuomo does not criticize Mr. McCall at Cuomo campaign events, but his supporters do. Dr. West's criticism came at a news conference after a visit to Memorial Baptist Church, when he was asked to assess Mr. McCall.

''I think Carl McCall is a decent man, he is a good man,'' Dr. West said, as Mr. Cuomo looked on. ''But he is a timid and hesitant man. We need an aggressive progressive.''

Later, when asked to elaborate, he alluded to Mr. Cuomo's complaints that Mr. McCall was not aggressive in investing state pension money in concerns that would further social causes, like affordable housing. And he suggested Mr. McCall was late in joining the outcry over police brutality cases several years ago.

''Carl is a decent man, but he is a hesitant brother,'' Dr. West said. ''He's a timid brother.''

A spokeswoman for Mr. McCall declined to comment on Dr. West's remarks.

Mr. McCall, who has veen shown leading Mr. Cuomo in several polls, has sought to stay above the sniping among his aides, Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Cuomo's surrogates. If he criticizes anybody it is Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican seeking a third term.

Photo: Dennis Mehiel

Correction: August 27, 2002, Tuesday Because of an editing error, an article yesterday about Dennis Mehiel, a candidate for lieutenant governor of New York who acknowledged that he had fathered a child by each of two women while still legally married to his first wife, referred incorrectly in some copies to the number of years they were married before separating in 1992. It was 30 (37 was the number of years they were married before their divorce in 1999). Because of another editing error, the article misidentified the candidate whose black supporters were the focus of campaigning by Andrew Cuomo, a Democratic candidate for governor. That was H. Carl McCall, the other Democrat running for governor, not his close ally Mr. Mehiel.